Deep well cooker



y 1951 K. R. KUENNE DEEP WELL COOKER Filed April 29, 1949 INVENTOR. Kuno Robert Kuenne BY v ATTORNEY Patented May 1, 1951 DEEP WELL COOKER Kuno Robert Kuenne, c0nomowoc, Wis., assignor to A. J. Lindemann & Hoverson Company, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application April 29, 1949, Serial No. 90,383

6 Claims.

The improvements relate primarily to electric ranges, and more particularly to the cooking top and heating unit sections of such ranges, but may be applied to other devices and other uses to which they may be adaptable.

Among the objects and purposes of the improvements are the provisions of an efiicient electric heating unit securely mounted in the plane of the cooking top and of the other units thereof, and normally usable for all the ordinary operations and purposes of such other units, but capable of being lowered to positions beneath vessels set in and extending below its cooking hole in a downwardly extending jacket or casing, such as pressure and deep well cookers, and securely fixed in such positions; the rigid and secure mounting of said unit and cooking vessels supported thereon at the positions to which the unit can thus be moved vertically including its top or normal and its bottom position; and the protection of it against accidental displacement and injury due to careless handling or unusual shocks and jars. Other objects and purposes and other advantages will appear from the following description.

This application is a continuation in part of my application Serial No. 572,625, filed January 13, 1945, now Patent No. 2,481,227, to which reference is made herein for details and description not fully described and shown herein.

Units of this kind are required to carry considerable weight and to withstand severe shocks and jars, and to maintain their proper and accurately adjusted working position at all times. It is also very desirable that the unit when positioned substantially in plane with the cooking top and the other units therein, which is its normal working position, shall present no substantial projection or depression in the level of the top, so that vessels, pots and pans may be readily moved about therein, without danger of damage to the units or spilling of water or feed being cooked. Unless therefore the adjustable unit is accurately and. securely mounted, it will prove objectionable and will in time become ineffective under the shocks and wear and tear of ordinary use.

Other objects to prior units of this type are that they are not steady and securely fixed and supported in the positions to which they may be moved and that the heating unit and cooking vessel are not accurately spaced and insulated from the outer surrounding jacket and provided with a surrounding heat circulating zone, which is likely to produce undesirable results;

Another serious objection to the use of an ad'-- justable unit is that it may be displaced while in use or while being adjusted and fall to a.

lower level causing damage to itself or other parts.

signed.

The improvements are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which illustrate exernplary embodiments, and in which- Fig. l is a vertical medial section, partly in elevation;

Fig. 2 is a plan; Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail in perspective of a:

fragment of the heating unit assembly and one;

form of the unit supporting and guiding mem here;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 of a modification fragment of the parts as shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig, 4 with a fragment of the heating unit skirt shown therewith.

Referring to the drawing, I represents the cooking top of a range, 2 is an electric heating unit of ordinary construction positioned in a cooking opening 3 thereof and having a lateral annular flange 4, to which it is secured by means of a spider 5 and a depending skirt 6 joined with the flange surrounding these parts. The skirt and unit are surrounded by an outer jacket I mounted. on a depending flange I of the top of the range by an outwardly extending jacket flange 8 and spaced therefrom by vertical projections It! on the interior of the jacket. The unit 2 is provided with a bowl shaped shield and pan ll directly between it, integral with and depending from the skirt-flange t and this pan has a central bottom opening ii, all for the: usual purposes, and an opening 2 at one side for the passage of conductor part it of the heat ing unit connecting the unit 2 with a source of electric current.

Fixed to the skirt 6 of the unit and having sliding engagement with the projections, is a member l4 having a fiat portion 15 by which it is secured to the skirt and outwardly extending portions l6 and I1 turned backward toward the skirt at their outer free extremities, so that they form substantially parallel spring fingers for receiving the vertically positioned projections ID of the jacket, holding unit thereon and guiding and confining its up and down and lateral or rotary movements. Between these fingers there 3 is a space, indicated at l8, which permits the member l4 and the unit 2 to slide up and down thereon from top to bottom position in the jacket, and there is also a recess IS in which the rounded top It?" of the projection I is received and held when the unit is at top position.

Preferably there are four of the vertically disposed spacing and' unit guiding and positioning members it around the interior of the jacket spaced about 90 apart and an equal number of the members It on the unit structure correspondingly spaced. But there may be more orless of them so long as they extend more than half way around the circumference of both" element'son which they are mounted.

In operation the unit and'it's guiding andholding members [4 are raised to top position by the bail 20, having its ends diametricallypi'voted in.

the depending annulus 2! of the flanged, while engaged with the vertically positioned projections it, then turned while lifted slightly above the top- Iii so that the said top -is alig-ned-with the recess [9 and then released. This permits the top iii to engage securely in'the said recess and positions the unit 'in thecooking hole with its upper surface in the plane of the range'top. The bail 20 is then swung down on its pivots until it is nestled between the-outer convolution 2 of the heating'elementand the part H.

In the modified form of Figs. 4 and instead of the straight up and down projections there are inwardly embossed curved-projections 22 in-the jacket 27 with a laterally turned top 23 and recesses 24 in their lower parts, and through each of these projections runs a groove 25. skirt 26 there are outwardly embossedstuds' 28 which engage in the groove -25,-guid'e the heating unit in its vertical movements from-top to bottom and from bottom to'top and prevent-it from having more than a very limited rotary or lateral movement. The grooves-at-the tops'23 of the ridges or projections 22 are engaged by the studs by a combined lifting and-turning movement of the unit, and this secures the said unit on itstop position. To lower'the unit it is turned i-n 'the op'-' posite direction as it is lifted to-remove-itsstuds from the grooves intops 2'5 of theprojections4l2 and then permitted to gravitate-to the; bottom.

The recesses 25- provicleanintermediate pos'i-- tion forthe unit which may be passed by a slightlifting and turning of the-unit-in the same direction as at the top. If desired; these intermediate stops may beomitted and the ridges with their interior grooves given one-curve from top to bot tom.

It will be seen from. the foregoing that the functions of the two forms shown and describeda-re essentially the same. They provide analogous means operating in similar manner for guiding the unit in its movements-from top to bottom of the deep well, for Securing it in position at top and bottom and holding it at all timesagainst' free rotation, the guiding and holding means" spacing the unit and the vessel supported-there on positively and in insulated position'with re-" spect to the outer jacket and providingan annular heat circulating channel aroundthem. At the same time the inwardly projecting members on the inner wall of thejacket act to strengthen;

and reenforce that member and enable-it to maintain its position throughout'a long period" of use.

The friction between the close fitting spring fingers of the members; l5 and the inner'surface' of the jacket also-serves to guard against damag'e" In the 4 to the unit and other parts if it is dropped after being released at the top, since it cannot drop freely but will be checked and retarded by this friction and stopped well before it reaches the bottom. This action is even more pronounced in the form of Figs. 4 and 5 in which the friction between the curved groove in the inner surface of the jacket an'd'the stud is sufiicientto quickly overcome the gravity of "the unit at all points and to require a slight pressure on the unit to move it downwardly. The slight resilience of the unit skirt and the jacket however will prevent binding.

At thebott'om of the jacket an openwork plat- -formorspider" 29 spanning the bore of the same is positioned and". on this the unit rests at the bottom. The insulated conductor cable I3 also extends. through the openings of this member.

What I claim is;

1". In a device of the. character described, in combination with the cooking top of a range having cooking-holes therein, a jacket of heat resist ant sheet material mounted in fixed positioned jacent to and surrounding'oneof said holes and extending below the same a distancesufficient to receive a deepcooking vessel, a plurality of fixed inwardly projecting elongated members on the-interior of said jacket and integral-therewith spaced apart and located around more than half the circumference of saidjacket andeach extending continuously fromth-e upper to the lower part thereof, an electric heating unit in said jacket of lesser horizontal."diameterthan the" interior horizontal diameter" of said jacket and arranged to be m'ovable vertically from the upper to-' the lower part thereof androtatably, lateral projecting members secured infixed posi'-' tion on said unit, terminating within said jacket and spaced apart tocorrespond with-the spacing of said jacketmembers and having lower up wardly extending recesses adapted to engage them and 'be held thereby against downward 'vertical movement at the upper part of saidl'acket when moved" to a position over the upperporti'oir of said-jacket members by rotary movement'of said unit and said projecting members constructed and arranged to beheld thereby and by" contact therewith against free rotarymovement'- when moved by counter-rotary movement of said unittoa position away from saidpositiomover' the saidupper portion of'saidjacketmembers and downwardly.

2. In adevice as speoified in claim 1, said jacket members being inclinedbetweerr their 'upper andlower ends with'respect to'the vertical and having recesses intermediatetheir ends extendin therefrom-approximately horizontally.

3. In a device as specified in claim 1, said jacket members being inclined between their upper and" lower'ends with'respect" to the vertical and having recesses at'theinupper' ends and."'in* termediate their ends extendingtherefrom a proximately horizontally.

4. In a device of the'character described, in cornbination' 'with the cooking'top' of a range having cooking holes therein, a jacket ofh'eat' around more than halfth'e fcircumference'of said jacket" and each extending'scontinuoiisly.Z'from the upper to the lower part thereof, an electric heating unit in said jacket of lesser horizontal diameter than the interior horizontal diameter of said jacket and arranged to be movable vertically from the upper to the lower part thereof androtatably, lateral projecting members secured in fixed position on said unit and spaced apart to correspond with the spacin of said jacket members and adapted to engage them and be held thereby against downward vertical movement at the upper part of said jacket when moved to a position over the upper portion of said packet members by rotary movementof said unit and to be held thereby and by contact therewith against free rotary movement when moved by counter rotary movement of said unit to a position away from said position over the said upper portion of said jacket members and downwardly, said jacket members also being constructed and arranged to contact the exterior of a cooking vessel in the jacket and to space and insulate it from the walls of the jacket uniformly throughout their circumferences and to provide a heat circulating chamber between said vessel and jacket the inwardly projecting members of the jacket havin the form of continuous embossed beads in the wall of the jacket each provided with a continuous lengthwise medial groove therein in which the projectin member of the unit is located and by which it is guided and held against free lateral movement.

5. In a device as specified in claim 1, the inwardly projecting elongated members of the jacket being curved laterally intermediate their ends and engaging frictionally the projecting members of the unit to retard while permitting the downward movement of said unit.

6. In a device as specified in claim 1, the lateral projecting members on the unit being normally in frictional engagement with the jacket and acting to check and retard while permitting gravitational movement of said unit therein.

KUNO ROBERT KUENNE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 923,224 Welch June 1, 1909 2,025,252 Stancell Dec. 24, 1935 2,257,580 Trompeter Sept. 30, 1941 2,321,850 Pearce June 15, 1943 2,328,113 Tuttle et al Aug. 31, 1943 2,416,645 Rutenber Feb. 25, 1947 2,481,227 Kuenne Sept. 6, 1949 2,485,698 Chesser et al Oct. 25, 1949 2,485,990 Snow Oct. 25, 1949 2,497,258 Chesser et al Feb. 14, 1950 

